Epistasis

about this album

Following the success of her 2018 solo debut album Kontrapoetik, the Swedish composer Maria w Horn returns with Epistasis, her most ambitious record to date. The title track Epistasis, Konvektion and the two parts of Interlocked Cycles see the XKatedral co-founder explore radical approaches to composition that combine avantgarde methods with electronic means. While Kontrapoetik highlighted Horn's strength as a conceptual and political artist, Epistasis is to be understood as an advanced statement by a forward-thinking composer who throughout four pieces channels her influences, ranging from black metal to minimal music, through state-of-the-art technology. Originally composed as an audiovisual piece for synchronised multichannel sound and lights and premiered in 2018 at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Interlocked Cycles is a series of pieces exploring a gradual increase in tempo and density using various instruments. It was written to be performed by a computer-controlled upright Disklavier piano while the electronic part was generated within the Supercollider framework using phase modulation synthesis. Navigating between acoustic and electronic sounds, the two parts of Interlocked Cycles create a frame for the album by respectively serving as an introduction and coda to Horn's musical exploration of the notions of authenticity and artificiality. The nine and a half minute long title track was composed for an eight-voice double string quartet and draws on evolving

tracks

more from Maria w Horn

Kontrapoetik

Funeral Folk

Oinones Death, Pt. I

PANOPTIKON

Celestial Shores

Earthward Arcs